By UNCTAD GENEVA (IDN) — Coronavirus pandemic recovery efforts should provide comprehensive social protection, fight climate change, and ensure vaccines reach the poorest people quickly. Nobel laureate Esther Duflo spelled out what an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 crisis should entail and outlined lessons learned from the pandemic, while delivering the 17th edition of UNCTAD’s […]
Dreams Have Come True As the University of Central Asia Graduates its Inaugural Cohort
By Nisar Keshvani SINGAPORE (IDN) — Imagine. The most remote of mountains. Two thousand metres above sea level. On the Silk Road, and 240 km away from China. In secondary cities with populations going up to 150,000. Therein, majestically stands a fully-residential university, delivering a world-class education for the next generation of Central Asian learners—regardless […]
Climate: The Creativity Crisis
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl* This is the second in a series of four articles. Click here for the first in the series. QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — If Covid-19 has taught us one lesson, it is that the creativity within the scientific community led to effective vaccine development in a timeframe nobody anticipated. Frankly, humanity got […]
Climate: The Cognition, Collaboration and Creativity Crisis
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl* This is the first in a series of four articles. QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — The climate crisis is the most daunting challenge ever confronted by humankind. At the present time, mankind is losing the battle. This article explores the first of three dimensions of our inept response; cognition. As a point […]
Russia, US and The Churning Arctic Geopolitics
Viewpoint by K.M. Seethi* KOTTAYAM | India (IDN) — The Arctic geopolitics has become one of the strategic policy planks of big powers. This has been reflected in the separate statements issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden after the US-Russia summit in Geneva on June 16. Putin told reporters that […]
China and Russia Build a Central Asian Exclusion Zone
Viewpoint by Emil Avdaliani* TBILISI, Georgia (IDN) — State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted the China+Central Asia (C+C5) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in the Chinese city of Xi’an on May 12. This is the second such meeting, which increasingly focuses (with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan) on geopolitical issues. More broadly, it signals […]
A Seismic Event in US-Russia Relations
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK (IDN) — The President of the United States Joseph Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met on June 16 in Geneva at a time when the two countries are engrossed in an antagonistic confrontation over many issues—historically, the worst ever relations between the two countries.
Productive Capacities Key to Achieving Sustainable and Growth in LDCs
By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) — The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has brought to light not only the systemic interdependence of countries, but also the socioeconomic fragility of the global economy. From a trade and development perspective, this has been felt most acutely in the most vulnerable developing countries—the least developed countries (LDCs), says […]
Majority of UN Members Refuse to Fund UNHRC’s Sri Lanka Probe
But would the West Respect the Majority Will? Viewpoint by Sugeeswara Senadhira COLOMBO (IDN) — Majority of members of the UN, especially from the Global South, have refused to donate funds to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC’s) move to set up a separate secretariat to enforce matters relating to the Resolution it passed […]
Aid Does Not Necessarily Foster Stability
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The biggest war at the moment is the civil war in Somalia, started in 1991. It has claimed over half a million lives. Second, is the civil war in Syria which has led to about 400,000 deaths. Third, is South Sudan where approximately 400,000 have been killed. […]